I'll be hunting until the 10th of December or the tags run out. I have tags for mule deer, whitetail, moose, lynx, cougar and no tags required for coyotes or wolves. Very few whitetail, so muley and coyotes are the most likely to get shot.
I have two shooters on cam lately, plus a few more bucks that are too young. And one ugly 3X4 that I call the "Old Pedophile". He seems to prefer this spring's fawns. I might shoot him, given the chance. My prime target is a 5X6. Second is a clean 4X4. The weather has been warm ( by our standards) mostly several degrees above freezing and wet. Normally it would be zero to ten degrees F . The bucks are checking does and their hang outs.
I'm using an old IPhone so pics will be poor.
I've already seen the squirrel, so that parts is done.
I can sit till noon tomorrow, so hopefully something happens in the morning.
I've got about four more hours to sit today, then off to a poorly planned doctor's appointment. Hopefully a good buck passes by on what seems to be their constant, random ramblings. Don't think I've ever had it this warm in November.
Tomorrow will be a ten hour day, unless it is interrupted with a bloody arrow.
This is not great weather, but it is late, pre rut and a buck could show up anytime of the day. It is literally a matter of hours in the stand, being in a spot they will pass through, and being ready.
I always like to take a shot before I leave the stand, for practice and to build confidence. Yesterday, I had picked out a small dark clump at about sixty yards and was about to pull the trigger when a grouse popped out. Any way I missed a fifty six yard shot. But not by much.
I considered shooting him, but contemplated it till dark and the decision was made. There are (or were) two much better bucks in the area and things are just heating up.
WilliamTell. Vancouver is about four hundred miles south of me, the way the crow flys. It's also one of the most expensive places for real estate in Canada. But it is also almost always in the top five city's in the world to live in. Not that I would live there. Much cheaper where I am and not that many people. We have sixteen hunt able big game species. If you lived here, you could hunt, say, sheep, moose, caribou and goat every year and save yourself sixty thousand dollars in guide fees.
The bucks here are very transient, so having does around is the only way to have a good chance at bucks coming through. These are not like big, open country western mule deer. These guys live in the bush, more like whitetails. Only their home range can be big and it can change seasonaly and year to year.
Hope something big is on the same trail!
Tons of action here this morning. Something has the does on their feet and moving and that can only be horny bucks!!
Wish I had a phone that took decent pics. Wrecked my camera on a caribou hunt this fall. Total carelessness. Now I'm sorry.
Handguns are restricted and not much chance for permit to bush carry, except for some work situations.
OTC tags available for all species plus draws for some areas. Bison and grizzly are all draw, but you can draw grizzly every year if you don't mind driving.
A few snowshoe hares always come out near dark and eat in the clover. They are pretty much pure white and trying to hide in a green, brown environment. I'm thinking they believe Al Gore's global warming stories.
The chase is on for the mule deer bucks here now. Hoping for some antler action this morning!!
Just took a few moments to remember and thank those that did sacrifice and those that are sacrificing so that I can even be here, in a free land, enjoying a what they stood for.
All day sit tomorrow.
Sorry about the lousy pics, but I'm using lousy gear.
Good news is, I picked up the cam card before climbing up and both the Big 3 and the 5X6 were here earlier this morning. Sniffing and coaching does.
Hoping for good things today.
And she is biiiii-cheeee!
Chasing and kicking other deer Real PMS mood for sure.
Just my resident squirrel, a couple of grouse and the chickadees. This is a real Scrooge Squirel. Every morning at 8:00 a feeder drops about a pound of cob/ corn mix. That squirrel will chase other squirrels, little birds and even grouse away. Yesterday he nearly went nuts chasing a very persistent magpie. I also hand dribble a little bit of feed along the bush line for the grouse and rabbits, so they don't have to expose themselves as much. I'm sure if Scrooge knew that, he'd head over there with a bag and grab it all.
Checking the cam cards, I see that the 5X6 was hanging around from about midnight till 5:30 am. At which time the Big 3 showed up and ran him off the girls.
I tried posting some pics and the first pic showed up as some random guy I don't know, standing in a food plot somewhere. After that, I got error messages.
Guess I'll try again later.
Here is a pic from about two weeks ago.
I have a good feeling about tomorrow.
Not sure what to do if the Big3 shows up first. Pass again and wait for the 5X6, or shoot him at first chance. The 5X6 may gross 180" and net will be poor. The Big3 would be doing good to go 125" and that would be on mass. But both would be good euros to look at on the wall and they both have appeal to me. And I don't put the numbers on the wall and admire that, just the antlers and the memory.
Thats a decision to be made if it presents itself, I guess.
It actually got darker as the moon dissapperaerd and the sun hadn't bothered with this little hollow yet. The crunch of frozen vegetation, under my footsteps, sounded encouraging.
Just as the sun absent mindedly scattered a few leftovers into my gulley, a mature doe came through and looked at me in the tree as if checking to make sure I was there before she bothered to drag a big buck back.
It seems like the perfect day to kill something. And if not, it will still be a great day.
Saw does throughout the day. Not a single buck.
Back at it tomorrow.
Those are some BIG bodied deer!
A little background. For November, in this Unit, mule deer must be four point on at least one side not including the brow tine. It's a bit complicated, but the Big3 is legal even though he is a mainframe 3X3 because of a sticker above his brow tine. This morning there was a lot of does coming and going and they seemed agitated today, chasing, kicking and running helter skelter. PMS, I think.
Anyway a chunky 3X4 [you eastern whitetail guys would call him a nine point] came in with a couple of does, but eventually lost interest and left. A half hour later, I see him coming back, being pushed by the Big3 and they end up one on either side of my tree. I took a good look at the Big3, because after letting him walk four times in the past several days, I had made the decision to shoot him if he showed today.
And I can't believe my eyes. The tine that made him legal is gone!! Sometime between Sunday and this morning, he had broken that point off and another sticker on the outside of his left G2. All I could do was watch him harass that 3X4 for about twenty minutes around my stand and finally pushed him off into the hills east of me. He was still pushing and snort wheezing as far as I could see.
So now what I'm left with is a clean 4X4 that I haven't seen since mid September. A nocturnal 5X6 that got a licking from the Big3, three days ago and hasn't shown his face since. Or the possibility of a stranger showing up. Which can easily happen given the transient nature of the muley bush bucks here.
I will also be going to hunt mule deer and whitetail with a buddy four hours west sometime between now and December 10. I can shoot a total of three deer and any combination. But I'd like to get a mule deer here at home first.
Back in the stand tomorrow.
There's about an inch of snow on the ground, still snowing lightly and right at the freezing mark. Hopefully the does work their magic and have the bucks traveling to my "Dating Site".
I did have a strange buck show up late afternoon yesterday, while I was off checking other cams, hoping for a pic of the 5X6. I can't tell on the tiny screen I'm viewing with, if he's legal or not. Judging by body size and face , he is mature. I have to reposition that cam to. With the ice fog and frost the pics are pretty blurry sometimes.
Williamtell, The Big3 is at least 6 1/2 years old and likely older. Fairly old for here. He has probably never been better than a 3X3 mainframe. Next year he will likely just be a little shorter and thicker with more burrs and stickers. His antler configuration is a common genetic trait for this particular area. And now that he has bought himself another season by breaking off that tine, maybe we'll get to see what he looks like next year.
hunt'n addict: You could be right and I hope you are. What I thought was a new buck that showed up is actually the 3X4 back. And if he came back, then maybe the 5X6 will give it a go to.
Morning sit only tomorrow. Seems like it's pretty quite between 9:00 am and 3:30 anyway. Hope I don't miss something.
I can only sit til noon today. I've got twin, two year old grandsons and I agreed to herd those two young bucks for the remainder of the day.
Thanks for the comment JohnB. The older I get the easier I find it to do nothing all day. Spending ten hours , twenty feet up a tree, on a two foot square platform is good practice for the rocking chair days ahead. I do fish, so I hope you're right about the nice buck to. I may have bought an old Bear compound riser from you for a warfing project?
Things did indeed change fast! Does began showing until there were several coming or going at the same time. Where I'm sitting is next to an east/west running creek ravine. On the south side of the ravine are steep, treed hills with multiple north/south running ravines that drain into the creek bottom. On the north side is a logged area with extremely thick poplar regrowth. In the regrowth are a number of old skid trails that loosely form several clover leafs and trails going off of them in spokes. I sit in the "hub" of all these.
When the bucks are chasing and the does are not ready yet, they seem to like this spot to run their "race". The bucks keep the does on their feet and they just keep making the circuit.
About 9:15 the Big 3 showed up and I watched him head up to a hill top, when I saw another buck come over the hill. The 3X4 was back and cruising to. After making sure the 3X4 understood the way things would be run for this rut, the Big3 came down to check some does. One was more interesting than the others. She ran a short circle that took her directly under my stand in the big spruce. He followed and I was soon looking at him through the mesh of my stand. He stood under the cover of the boughs, neck stretched out like a statue. Looking straight down with my binoculars I could finally determine that the one sticker was indeed an inch long! Legal!!
It took a while longer for the buck to get into a shooting position as he was constantly moving and turning as the does skittered out of his way. Finally he presented a broadside, twenty two yard shot and the arrow zipped through his ribs.
Big3 and several does ran uphill on a skid trail and hooked right and through the thick poplar screen I thought I saw him lay down. After waiting thirty minutes I climbed down and checked the arrow. Looks good. I quietly made my way around one of the clover leaf loops that would bring me over a hill that would look down onto where I last saw the buck. Slowly coming over the brow, a few does and the 3X4 came into view. Then antler tips pointing sideways. A few more steps, with an arrow nocked and ready for a quick draw, revealed the Big 3. Dead.
I took a couple of "as he lay' pics with my phone. Which I will attach from it.
Having no camera presented a problem, not that I'm a big picture taker anyway, being a little less than Hollywood materiel. So I did the appropriate redneck thing, walked down and got one of the better trail cams and propped it against a small sapling. Now posing with the buck I just kept posing and waiting for the cam to trigger.
Of course after getting home I realized that the cam was still there, and I couldn't get back to it that day. So below will be the two best pics.
Is the build far enough to let you get out? Although, I don't know what you'd have to shoot to top the season you've already had!!
>>>>-------->
So, these are mule deer and not Blacktails?
Thanks for sharing!
This has been a fun thread to follow and the results are wonderful
Congrats
Good luck, Robb
